Learning in my PJs with Ewan McIntosh and THE WORLD!

Yesterday morning, at 7am, while still in my PJs, I 'attended' one of Ewan McIntosh's monthly GETinsight online 'Office Hours' sessions.

These are 'attended' by pre registering through links available on Ewan's blog (http://edu.blogs.com/), and then using the link to cisco.com to phone into the discussion or to request a callback.

The topic was 'Do schools really value pupils' views?' and around 15 people from all around the world shared their ideas, points of view and thoughts.

Why is this valuable? If we are to embrace the 'sharing' essential for the e-Central cluster to succeed beyond the 3 year project, we have to 'walk the walk' and not just 'talk the talk'. This means being open to sharing what we are doing as well as learning from others, here in NZ and beyond. We can begin to realise that there are other educators, from all over the world, dealing with the same issues, experiencing the highs and lows and who are willing to share their ideas, successes and failures generously with us, down in little old NZ.

Suddenly we begin to work with the online communities, recognising that the 40 minutes spent, eating your toast, engaging in this kind of discussion really is worthwhile.

Ewan asked the question, have we as teachers, forgotten how to learn? Are we now sitting waiting to be told what to learn, waiting for our next focus or initiative to be spoonfed? Do we believe that being a teacher no longer means also being a learner? How are we following our own learning journey or are we falling back to the 'I don't have time' excuse. If we do not have time to be learners then are we still teachers? When did the two separate? All of these questions...

So, there I was, sitting at my PC, still a little bleary eyed listening through my home phone, to Claude from the American School in Paris discussing how she is using Video to gather student feedback about their learning. She also discussed the issues with getting all of her teachers on board, their fears that this did not in fact encourage 'deep learning' and the way that students are now driving the use of video within the school.

Ben, from the UK, talked about how he is using Prezi http://prezi.com/ as an option for students to present their learning. This provides a great alternative to "powerpointless" slideshows and has a range of features that allow for students to evolve their use of the programme instead of quickly mastering the process and becoming bored with it. He also spoke about how using Games Based Learning with his students had assisted their retention of information and increased their interest and motivation in the topic (Romans).

Alannah from up in Nelson, spoke about how the 'Sharing' message has been taken on board by her ICT PD Cluster and how they are starting 'Walkarounds' where teachers are given two hours off timetable to physically visit classrooms in other schools. She also spoke about how what we can gain from others is determined by our 'mindset'. If we do not believe sharing will gain us anything, then it won't. Simple as that!

All in all, a great opportunity to consider your own beliefs, ideas and possibly misperceptions from the comfort of your own home, at no charge (no free steak knives unfortunately...)

Consider signing up for next month's discussion about Teachers as learners and share your ideas with the world!

If you are interested in my notes from the full 40 minute discussion, drop me an e-mail and I will forward them on to you.

Until next time

Karla